


The Long Haul

by callmechristinae



Series: Livejournal Migration [27]
Category: Rent - Larson
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-04
Updated: 2006-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-26 21:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/970711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmechristinae/pseuds/callmechristinae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roger keeps Mark from doing his math homework.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Long Haul

**Author's Note:**

> Teenage AU

_"Forget about your algebra_

_And calculus_

_You can always do your homework_

_On the morning bus"_

  
  
“Come on Mark! I didn’t come over here to watch you do your algebra homework!” Roger lay on his back on the floor, his hands folded gently over his stomach. He stared up at the ceiling, holes marking where a younger Mark had hung model planes that had long since been put away. The room had a crisp white paint on the walls, clean since Roger had just spent last weekend painting the room with Mark’s stepfather, Craig. It had been a fun time, and Roger found he got along a lot more with Mark’s stepfather than his father who seemed disappointed with, well, everything about the aspiring musician. But, right now, Roger was painfully bored.  
  
“It’s calculus,” Mark muttered back, not looking up from the mass of numbers, lines, and squiggles on his graph paper.  
  
“Whatever, just do it later.” Roger climbed up onto the small bed, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy’s waist and resting his head on one of the bony shoulders. He pressed gentle kisses to the pale neck, trying anything to distract his boyfriend from the homework that was keeping him from having any fun.  
  
“Roger, I’ve got to finish this. Believe it or not, this gets graded.” Mark rolled his shoulders, pushing Roger back for a moment so he could refocus on his work.  
  
“What does it matter? You’re a senior and you already got into Brown,” Roger whined, looking over the work he didn’t even try to understand.  
  
“But I need to keep my grades up so they don’t take back my acceptance.” Mark kept writing, quickly filling the sheet of paper with a strange combination of letters and numbers.  
  
“What do you need?”  
  
“A 2.0 I think.”  
  
“What did you get last semester?”  
  
“A 4.33.”  
  
“Mark!”  
  
“What!?” Mark turned his head to look back at Roger, his mouth quickly slanting into a lopsided smile as he took in the incredulous look on the rocker’s face.  
  
“You could probably not show up for the rest of the year and  _still_  get above a 3.0.”  
  
“And when I hand this paper in unfinished, what am I going to tell my teacher?”  
  
“Tell him that your boyfriend drove all the way from New York to spend the evening with you and you needed to play the gracious host and entertain him,” Roger leaned back in, wrapping his arms tightly around Mark’s slender waist and rolling him over to rest against his chest. Mark sighed, shimmying upward to rest his face in the crook of the older boy’s neck.  
  
“Rog, you’re only about an hour away with traffic.”  
  
Roger smirked, trying not to laugh as Mark’s breath tickled his neck. “It took me a little longer than that to get here.”  
  
“You got off work at two, I got out of school at three and when I got home you were baking cookies with my mom.”  
  
“Are you going to complain about my chocolate chip cookies?”  
  
“Your chocolate chip cookies?”  
  
“Okay, your mom’s cookies. But I put them in the oven.”  
  
Mark sighed. If Roger didn’t like him so much, he might smack him for all the huffing and puffing the boy did. “Come on babe, I bet you could just finish it on the bus tomorrow morning. Just forget about it.”  
  
“Hey boys.” Roger looked up towards the door, seeing Mark’s mother standing there with a smile on her face and her apron covered in flour from the baking. “I was thinking about sending Craig out to pick up some Chinese. You’re staying for dinner, right Roger?”  
  
“If you have room for me ma’am,” Roger replied with one of the biggest toothiest grins he could muster.  
  
Mark’s mother laughed. “You know we’ve always got room for you dear. So, how about chow mein, beef, fried rice, and some other stuff?”  
  
“Could we get some hot and sour soup?” Mark asked, immediately perking up and looking up at his mother with a smile.  
  
“Of course. After dinner Craig and I are going to watch some of the used movies that I picked up earlier if you boys want to join us. Your welcome to spend the night Roger,” Mark’s mother offered, beginning to walk away from the room.  
  
Mark turned to Roger and smiled, the older boy frowning for a short moment. “That’d be great, but I’ve got to call Collins first so he doesn’t think I crashed or I’m lying in a gutter somewhere at three in the morning.”  
  
“You know where the phone is,” Mark’s mother said with her ever present smile. She paused before walking away to look back at her son. “Your father’s wife called about your father’s birthday party. When did she start ending her messages with ‘love mom’?”  
  
“I don’t know mom. She’s psycho.”  
  
“Now that’s no way to talk about you father’s wife. Just because she dresses that way is no reason to call her a tramp.” Roger dropped his head back against the bed and laughed, keeping his arms wrapped loosely around Mark.  
  
“I didn’t call her a tramp mom,” Mark replied with a grin.  
  
“Oh, I guess that was just me thinking in my head,” Mark’s mom tilted her head to the side, bringing a single finger to her chin before shrugging her shoulders and walking off. “Well, I’m going to go send Craig out for dinner. I’ll call you guys when it’s ready.”  
  
“Thanks mom,” Mark shouted after her, hearing some indistinct noise of acknowledgement come back towards him.  
  
Mark shifted over slightly to straddle Roger’s hips, bringing their foreheads together and looking into his boyfriend’s eyes. He placed a soft chaste kiss against Roger’s lips before moving to get off the bed. Roger, however, didn’t let him move, keeping his arms wrapped around the smaller boy’s waist and pulling him to close.  
  
“Where do you think you’re going?” Roger teased in his best sexy rock star voice. Mark didn’t fall for it one minute.  
  
“That may drive those girls in the New York clubs crazy, but I won’t. I’ve known you too long,” Mark teased right back, leaning in for a longer and more involved kiss before rolling off and standing. “Come on, let’s go get the table ready. And don’t groan or roll your eyes or any of that.” Roger chuckled, rather ungracefully rolling off the bed and onto the floor before getting to his feet.  
  
Mark walked over to him, wrapping his arms around Roger’s waist and pulling them close together. “If you’re a good boy I’ll let you have my fortune cookie,” Mark whispered, giving his boyfriend another kiss.  
  
Roger smiled as Mark took his hand and began to lead him out the room and down the stairs. “So I guess this means you’re not going to finish your calculus tonight?”  
  
Roger’s grin grew wider at the eye roll Mark made sure he saw. Next year, when Mark went away to Brown and when Roger started taking classes at the nearby community college they wouldn’t have nearly as much time to spend together. He wouldn’t worry about that now though with Mark tossing napkins in his direction. Besides, they had all the time in the world and he was sure a few classes, some calc homework, and even their future jobs wouldn’t drag them apart. He was in this for the long haul, and he hoped Mark knew that.  
  
“Hey, Rog? You there?”  
  
“Yeah, I was just thinking a little.”  
  
“Well, don’t do to much of that. It’ll give you a headache.”  
  
Roger stuck his tongue out in Mark’s general direction, placing the napkins on the table as Mark followed him with the utensils. He was startled when he felt a kiss on his cheek.  
  
“Love you,” Mark whispered.  
  
“Love you too,” Roger whispered back, giving Mark a kiss back. Yup, he was definitely in this for the long haul.


End file.
